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It is common knowledge that the human trafficking is a $150 billion industry, at least it should be something everyone is educated on. A large number of women and girls make up a big percentage of those that are victimized, but why are they being re-victimized by the justice system? When a tip comes into Vice about a trafficking ring or a smaller scale trafficking situation the first action that is employed is to arrest the victims. The reasoning behind this method is that it’s the only way to get the girls to safety. It will also give them something they don’t want or need-a record. ...read more...

Not only are these sting operations traumatizing, but then to add salt to the wound by being arrested and processed. This does not make you feel as though you’ve been brought to safety. It is only after that, that they are found to be victims and therefore are referred to services. Being set free from modern day slavery comes with a price that will stay with you until it can be removed, and that’s a big IF. There is so much that needs to be dealt with on the surface that the thought of having to wrestle with a criminal record is extremely stressful. Being able to reclaim your life back as someone who is not considered a threat to society is not that easy. This has a lot of disastrous consequences when moving forward to a fresh start. Having a record keeps a survivor from accessing basic resources like employment and housing which is crucial in becoming independent and being able to sustain themselves.The OVC (Office for Victims of Crime) has recently announced a disturbing language removal in their FY2018 funding cycle. Any pro-bono legal agency seeking funding for vacatures or expungements of a client’s record will not receive OVC funding. This obstructs a survivor’s ability to gain legal council to have unjustified criminal charges removed. Many agencies all across the United States are in jeopardy of losing the financial support to vacate or expunge their client’s record. Without being able to take these cases, pro-bono lawyers are crippled to help a survivor regain their life back wholly. This puts them at the mercy of a system that is designed to keep them helpless, interdependent and always looking for a handout just to stay alive. These unhealthy and destabilizing tactics used by the DOJ supports a cycle of continued abuse directed at the survivor on all sides.
This makes it hard for those of us who are working to give survivors better choices with more options. This decision closes a lot of doors of opportunity for women and young women to start over. As someone who helps them to be independent and gives them the tools to sustain themselves this language removal makes my work that much more difficult. Employers and landlords sometimes do criminal background checks and sometimes things just “Pop up”. The other reality is the fact that shelters cannot hold all of these women and are only temporary. Agencies and pro-bono lawyers have already taken to social media and have set up online letters decrying this change. You have to fight human trafficking on all fronts not just the ones you feel comfortable supporting.

W.A.R. is a blog that is part of BeaSister2aSister.org a 501(c)3 non profit that has a sustainable program for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation & abuse globally. We are dedicated to helping survivors become independent & not interdependent.
If you would like to know more or give to help us put survivors on a path of self sustainability please visit: http://www,beasister2asister.org to donate click on give today and follow the PayPal link. Thank you for supporting us!
Samantha Inesta
Founder/Executive Director
BeaSister2aSister

We always talk about consent and how if there is none then it’s sexual assault or rape. But when we talk about children and consent, that’s where things get tangled and knotted. When a child is labeled as a “Child Prostitute” without even knowing that’s what they are, is there consent there? Children are vulnerable, impressionable and can be naive at times but to suggest that they would consent to being a prostitute or even being raped is absurd. So why are there laws supporting the right for an adult (mostly male) to have sex with a child? The legal age of consent in most states is either 16 or 18 years of age. There are laws on the books in most states that require consent but in Georgia, where the age of consent is 16, if there is no consent it is not deemed rape. This is because the testimony of the victim is not believed without supporting evidence. A lot of these charges vary with ridiculous exceptions like in Idaho if the female is under 16 any sexual conduct is considered lewd conduct with no consent from the child. ...read more...

Washington Law looks at child rape in degrees of three. First degree rape is a Class A felony when the child is under the age of 12 and the defendant is 2 years older. This carries a maximum sentence with a possibility of life imprisonment. Second degree rape is also a Class A felony with the child being 12 or 13 and the defendant is 2 years older. Third degree rape is where the child is 14 or 15 and the defendant is at least 4 years older. This is a Class C felony with maximum 5 years in prison. It seems the older the child gets the more it’s less of a crime on the part of the male. What’s interesting is they are willing to send a 14 or 15 year old male to prison for life but an 18 or 19 year old gets 5 years maximum. Is it possible the some sort of coercion on the part of the older male could’ve taken place. Basically talking her into it, making promises and reassuring her that it’s okay and normal? When a young girl “thinks” she’s in love whether she communicates it or not an older man, who is of the age of consent, should know enough not to take advantage of her emotional state at the moment. Teenagers change their mind like they change their fashion, one minute they’re totally into something and the next minute they’ve moved on. It’s all very murky with not much justice attached.
In France a bill that was originally designed to protect children from rape has been revised to give more justice to the rapist. Article 2 in this revised bill is the cause of much outrage with those who work with youth, including myself. In France it’s illegal for an adult to engage in sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 15 but it isn’t considered rape. The revision of Article 2 calls for not qualifying sex with someone under the age of 15 rape. This revision was called upon by French psychologists, social workers, doctors, lawyers and celebrities. Yes, you read that right. They even got together and wrote to Emmanuel Macron urging him to make this revision. Some may not be so surprised by celebrities but the people that work with these young children who are so severely damaged and traumatized by this is more enraging. Their reasoning for this is because they don’t want to see highly publicized cases in the media of men in their 20s having sex with 11 year old children. So punishing the child is the way to go. This opens up so much of a Pandora’s box it’s mind boggling. This makes me think of the countless young girls being gang raped in India with absolutely no justice given to the crime. Even flooding the streets with protesters doesn’t help. This is a place where lawyers are given prison time for speaking up on behalf of the victim and her family. Men in India do this with impunity and little to no punishment.
Why do we do this to children? How do we expect there to be future generations when this is what society thinks of trusting young girls and boys? As time goes on it will be hard pressed to find a child that has not experienced rape or sexual assault in some form. How will they deal with it knowing that they may not be protected by their government whose job it is to do just that? The bigger question is how to they move on and away from their trauma? If there are people out there fighting to make it okay for adults to have sex with children then we will see more broken and traumatized future generations incapable of functioning normally. Do we need to create a #MeToo for kids? Maybe then the government will listen.

W.A.R. is a blog that is part of BeaSister2aSister.org a 501(c)3 non profit that has a sustainable program for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation & abuse globally. We are dedicated to helping survivors become independent & not interdependent.
If you would like to know more or give to help us put survivors on a path of self sustainability please visit: http://www,beasister2asister.org to donate click on give today and follow the PayPal link. Thank you for supporting us!
Samantha Inesta
Founder/Executive Director
BeaSister2aSister

Everywhere you turn now there is another story of a woman being beaten, raped and assaulted. The latest headline is District Attorney Eric Schneiderman physically abusing 4 women one of whom was the recipient of a open handed slap that left her totally disoriented and fighting to defend herself. The story ends like most, Schneiderman’s actions led to his forced resignation by those around him, including the Governor of New York. So now we have another man in power who has deceived many into thinking he was for feminism, against violence and male domination over the rights of all women. Well, if that’s not an open handed slap to the face leaving us disoriented, I don’t know what is....read more...

The issue of domestic violence was something that most women didn’t really talk about too much because of the shame, stigma and the system that always worked against them. Women suffered in silence and fear then domestic violence was hushed, not taken seriously and forced countless women into hiding. The #MeToo movement has putdomestic violence back in the spotlight and gave many women all over the world the courage to come out of hiding and say me too. These stories are shooting out into the media like a machine gun and all the bullets hit the target. The backlash has heads shaking and spinning wondering how we got to this place. We were always in this place. I don’t think society fully comprehends the consistent cover up by so many men to keep their reputation in tact as a good guy that respects women. Schneiderman had everyone fooled, including the National Organization For Women-NYC chapter who always supported him. He marched for women’s rights alongside them, gave powerful speeches regarding empowerment and equality, and now this.
Are we too trusting? No. We want so much to believe that there are men out there who will stand by us, treat us with respect and humanity but we seemed to be failed a lot lately. I believe there is hope, we’re just looking for it in the wrong places. If we think that men with worldly power are capable of treating women with love and compassion allowing them to reach their full potential, then we’re kidding ourselves. No, the men that will stand with us are closer than we think. They may not hold powerful positions but they don’t need to. Consider the men that were raised by strong women who taught their sons to be real men, showed them that women are human, strong and deserve the same chances and opportunities. But most of all the lesson that it is NEVER okay to hit, rape or sexually assault a woman. These men are out there. And the best thing about them is they are raising sons the way their mother raised them. They are the allies, the partners that will stand with us. So let’s stop looking to entertainment, sports and politics for our allies, they will let us down every time.

Domestic violence hits home literally for every woman that is caught in it. This is not something that should ever hide in the shadows and force it’s victims into total silence. There are so many components that have done women wrong and sent their abuser away with a slap on the wrist. The physical bruises may heal but the mental scars never do. People arguing in the street, a family having a shouting match in the apartment below that could escalate are all triggers that will re-open those scars. I’m happy Eric Schneiderman stepped down, but that’s not enough.

W.A.R. is a blog that is part of BeaSister2aSister.org a 501(c)3 non profit that has a sustainable program for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation & abuse globally. We are dedicated to helping survivors become independent & not interdependent.
If you would like to know more or give to help us put survivors on a path of self sustainability please visit: http://www,beasister2asister.org to donate click on give today and follow the PayPal link. Thank you for supporting us!

This is really shaping up to be the year of the woman or possibly the decade. Women’s voices have been amplified more than ever, commanding attention and not asking for permission. Anger, rage and unapologetic emotion have lined social media and pop culture. It’s a whiplash frenzy of female voices screaming for rights, existence and the end of the patriarchy. The boiled over pot has been on the stove way too long and the scorching heat needs a place to cool before it consumes the whole kitchen. Decades long of women fighting for everything under the sun always getting push back from the male establishment who don’t consider women to really be a part of society, just something to make them feel good once in a while. Well, those days are long gone....read more...

We have entered into an era of not only US women fighting but women all over the world. One glorious outcry a combined solidarity movement that has governments across the globe scrambling to appease or disburse the women. What we take for granted in the US is met with imprisonment and possibly death in other countries. Interestingly enough we are not that much different in the war that we fight. What we really all want is freedom. Now I know that women in the United States would say they are already free and yes they’re right-partially. Consider all the hurdles and stigmas that women must go through just to have a place in society. There was a time when a woman’s existence was identified through her husband. She would even had to ask his permission for everything, even to get a job and voting was an entirely different issue. Of course a lot of that has changed but it was a slow going process. Now women are employed in many fields even doing some jobs that are usually reserved for men. Yes that’s progress, but at what cost? Women endure mountains of sexual harassment and assault, unequal pay and little access to a promotion. Women owning homes on their own isn’t an easy task, just like taking your car to the mechanic you must take a “male chaperon” so you won’t get taken advantage of. Women doing anything on their own without a husband is still frowned upon in most cases.
Women who have suffered severe domestic violence and are now ready to move forward face discriminatory practices by the court system, landlords and employers reminding them that this stigma will never go away because you are marked. So many laws designed to protect survivors of domestic violence but no one wants to treat them as human. Some new gun control laws center around men who abuse their wives forcing them to relinquish their weapons upon realization they are a domestic abuser but when that same wife is in the courts pleading for her life, silence. That is the reality. It may sound familiar because these stories are coming out of other countries across the globe. Single mothers are not having fun either. With recent cuts to programs that help them stay afloat many become homeless and those that find work struggle to the point of hopelessness. The list is too long. We have been getting a lot of attention though some good, some bad but at least we are opening a badly needed conversation.
We hope, we pray for a paradigm shift that will work in our favor something that will put us on equal footing so we all have a fighting chance in the world given to us. This is why we march, protest, write, blog, advocate and rage. It shouldn’t always be a fight to move up in our careers, own a business, buy a home, work in a field that is mostly dominated by men and if it is we should be treated with respect and not like a blow-up doll. As it is we get condescended to by doctors, lawyers, contractors etc. This is not rocket science I know this because I have seen men treat women with respect and value them so I know it can be done. Just don’t be that guy that jumps on the bandwagon because he wants to cover up his own indiscretions by blaming other men. We can see through that lie very quickly. Change will not come easily or fast so until then, women will be in the center of it all until we get what we’ve been fighting for for decades. Freedom.

W.A.R. is a blog that is part of BeaSister2aSister.org a 501(c)3 non profit that has a sustainable program for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, exploitation & abuse globally. We are dedicated to helping survivors become independent & not interdependent.
If you would like to know more or give to help us put survivors on a path of self sustainability please visit: http://www,beasister2asister.org to donate click on give today and follow the PayPal link. Thank you for supporting us!

So there is a lot of misinformation, confusion and fake news if you will when it comes to sex work and sex trafficking. The 2 sides have been at each other’s throats for a long time and the war hasn’t ended. Much research is being done in universities and by psychologists who want to break into the field of supporting those who they feel have a right to making money in this way while diminishing the fact that more women are trafficked than those that engage in sex work. This has caused a myriad of mudslinging, name calling and out and out screaming matches. It also pits real survivors of sex trafficking against basically, everyone. This type of research suggests that there is no such thing as sex trafficking and that all women and girls are going into it willingly and why do we need all this legislation to stop it when no one is being trafficked? It’s dangerous research that needs to be put into context....read more...

First off, women who do engage in sex work do it because of a circumstance that has left them with no other options. For example: Economic instability, past sexual abuse by a family member, forced sexual exploitation at a young age by adults and a bad drug addiction are some of the reasons why women do this work. Here an example that’s NOT a reason why they engage in sex work: because they want to and they love having sex with many different men, they enjoy it. Nowhere on this earth has this ever been a reason. Now, there are people out there that want to help them stay in this cycle. The first group are the activists that believe there is nothing wrong with allowing women to engage in sex work as a real job instead of offering them skills and better options. They buy into the narrative that they do enjoy it and it’s their body they can do with it whatever they want. What they also do is advocate for safer and cleaner working environments as well as access to health insurance benefits just like a real place of employment.
I do wonder though if their daughter approached them and said they didn’t want to go to school, they would rather sell sex for money, would they feel the same way? Food for thought.
The second group is the men that want these women around so they can do basically whatever they please to them. The have voided out the fact that they are human and have told themselves that she’s “different” and not a real woman that has feelings, a mind and will talk back. She will stroke his ego, tell him what he wants to hear and perform for him any sexual perversion he asks for because if she doesn’t, she’ll pay the price. That’s the reality of sex work a reality that is not told.
Sex trafficking survivors are having a hard time with this narrative because more people are apt to believe the sex work scenario than the force, fraud and coercion definition of trafficking. All of this gets very muddied and clouded, one cannot make a clear judgement or conclusion. Victims of sex trafficking are just that-victims, women who engage in sex work are victims too but in a different way, they are willing victims. A willing victim is someone who enters into criminal or immoral behavior to either fill an immediate financial need in their life or because of past abuses and psychological damage that left them with little to no options in life. And of course drug addiction. A victim of sex trafficking is someone who has experienced force, fraud or coercion as the UN definition states because it is a global problem.
I understand that the issue of trafficking has become a hot issue and everybody wants to be involved but, facts first. You cannot just get one side of the story, don’t just talk to sex workers and then proclaim that you’re an expert in sex trafficking. That will make you hugely unpopular. That argument disproportionately skews the information on whose an actual trafficking victim and who has willingly went into the sex trade. This type of advocacy makes it harder for law enforcement and organizations that help and support victims to recognize who they are. We want to give women better options not support them in something that will make them a stigma on society or bring them to an early death. I have worked with countless survivors and none of them advocate for sex work or are on the same side as those advocating for it.
If you don’t know the difference between sex work and sex trafficking or victim and willing victim or even survivor then before you do anything, get the facts on BOTH sides. Present your findings that include the voices of these women, their experiences, their fears, their life. Also some women are not going to be forth coming with the truth because of shame and fear, so know that not all of the information will be accurate. And most importantly DO NOT inject your opinion or thoughts or beliefs into your research. This is not about you or your feelings, this is about telling the truth and representing both sides fairly and accurately. Let’s end this war.

BeaSister2aSister is a 501(c)3 non profit that helps survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, abuse and exploitation become self sustainable and have a dependent free life. If you would like to learn more please email us at: info@beasister2asister.org. If you would like to donate or be a monthly donor please visit our website at: http://www.beasister2asister.org. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Samantha Inesta
Founder/Executive Director
BeaSister2aSister